Music Video: DeVotchKa

22 Friday Jan 2010

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This is another find that I owe to German, so a big shout out to him for providing me with amazing new music. Their name is a little deceiving-I was pretty sure they were from Russia or had a Russian affiliation until I did some research (on Wikipedia, I should say) and found out that although “DeVotchKa” is Russian for “young girl,” they are actually from Denver!

So, without further ado, her is DeVotchKa performing one of my favorite songs, Undone:
Here is another video of theirs that looks really cool:

People, it’s called punctuality.

19 Tuesday Jan 2010

Posted by in life, work

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Warning: this is a venting slash rambling blog.

Last week I began to tutor two amazing children, who are taking Spanish in school and their parents want them to get a little extra help on the side. The money’s good, and the family is amazing. These two little kids honestly make me smile every time I see them. The only thing is that with my original 9am to 6pm schedule, tutoring put me back a few hours and I didn’t get home until about 8:30 or 9 at night. That’s a long day! So I thought I would go in at 8am on the days I’m tutoring (Monday and Thursday), therefore getting me home an hour earlier :)
Anyhow, today as the holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr., my students had the day off from school and tutoring as well (if only I had the day off from work too….), but I still went in to work at 8am instead of 9am. I can’t even describe to you how excited I was at the prospect of getting home by 5:30 pm instead of an hour after that (my usual time), or even later if I had actually been tutoring. I even texted Jeff and we made huuuuuuge plans to cook dinner together.
Stoked. I was STOKED!
Some of you might say, “it’s only an hour difference, what’s the big deal?” The big deal is, kind reader, that there is a huge difference between getting home at 5:30pm and getting home at 6:30pm. By 6:30, I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I don’t feel like STARTING to figure out what to do for dinner. At 5:30, however, the evening still has endless possibilities!
So let me just tell you how disappointed I was in myself when I remembered that I had told a co-worker that I would talk to her client today at 5:30pm. See, I’ve only been on my new schedule for a week, so I thought I was still staying until 6pm when I originally gave my co-worker the thumbs up on this. I wanted to shoot myself today for being so stupid. But I gave my word, it was my fault, and so I stayed at work an extra hour (without getting paid overtime, by the way). And you know what? I stayed for absolutely nothing. 5:3o came and went, and the client wasn’t there. Apparently he had left his house at 5:20 in Costa Mesa, thinking that with traffic and rain he could be there in 5 minutes. I told my co-worker the information she needed to tell the client, and I threw in the towel at 6. It just irks me when people can’t stick to appointments. Jeff can tell you how I’m continually rushing him out of the house every time we have to be somewhere because I hate being late (even if it means feeling awkward once we get to our destination because we’re the first ones there…).
I hope this client sleeps well tonight, and never knows how they ruined my early-dinner-at-home tonight!
“Hey alex, why don’t you just go in to work at 8am everyday and stop complaining?” To which I have a very well-reasoned and logical answer: see, I keep telling myself that on the days I go in at 9, I have time in the morning to go to the gym! HA.

Charity of the Month: Invisible Children

18 Monday Jan 2010

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Did you know that up to 66,000 children were abducted in Uganda over 2 decades of conflict? The statistics of “children soldiers” around the world are mind numbing:

  • 2 million children killed in combat
  • Over 1 million orphaned
  • Over 6 million seriously injured or permanently disabled
  • Over 10 million left with serious pyschological trauma.
The conflict in Uganda stems from confrontation between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Arms (“LRA”). There has been progress through peace talks, but the LRA has failed to enter into any formal and lasting peace agreement. Meanwhile, the people of Uganda are still struggling to make ends meet, after they were displaced and found far away from their homes and livelihood. 1.8 million people were displaced, and about 1 million of those remain in Internally Displaced Persons (“IDP”) camps. These camps are not your idea of fun. They are overcrowded, dirty, and dangerous.
With these statistics in mind, we turn to our charity of the month: Invisible Children. I first became aware of them through a fellow lawstudent, Darrell. He was promoting an Invisible Children movie screening that was being hosted at our school. I remember going to the movie screening with Jeff. And I remember crying as we walked back to our car. I felt so helpless. I still don’t understand how there are situations around the world, like these children in Uganda, and the world doesn’t stop it. Sometimes I wonder: if more people cared, and if more people were AWARE, would that make a difference? I’d like to think that the answer is yes. Sorry…I’ll stop ranting and get back to Invisible Children :)
The organization focuses on making documentaries, but it goes beyond that: they raise money to build schools and provide scholarships for Ugandan children, to offer them hope for the future. I hope you guys check out their website. You can support Invisible Children by buying one of their cool documentaries and bracelets, and by spreading the word!

Not as Invisible as I thought!

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by in life, school

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I had to go to court for the first time last week. Well, technically the second time, but my first trip to see the Bankruptcy Trustee was so minor that I don’t really count it. Anyhow, I was standing in line, holding my client’s ID, SSN, and payment, trying to figure out exactly what I was doing, when someone next to me asks: “Did you go to Chapman?” I was a little taken aback, since I was out in Riverside, not Orange County. So we did our introductions, exchanged nervousness since it was his first time at a bankruptcy hearing too, and wished each other well.

It wasn’t until later that I realized why I found that interaction so strange: I never think anyone really notices me. I don’t think I have any self-esteem issues or anything, I actually think I’m pretty well adjusted and confident for a single-parent, single-child background. I just feel like I’m always under the radar…why would anyone recognize me? I know I would recognize most people that graduate from my school in my year, since it’s a relatively small class, but why would anyone recognize me?! :) I guess I’m not as invisible as I think!

Guatemala: Suicide or Murder?

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by in Guatemala, news, opinion

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Back in May, 2009, the country of Guatemala was pushed into a social and political crisis: an attorney by the name of Rodrigo Rosenberg had been killed while riding his bicycle. Days after his alleged murder, a video surfaced in which Rosenberg stated that if he was dead, it was because the president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom (among others), had ordered his death. The details are pretty intricate, but the main facts are that Rosenberg had been dating a woman, Marjorie Musa, who was killed along with her father. Rosenberg was allegedly investigating their murder, and in his video he stated this was one of the reasons why the President and others wanted him killed.

Needless to say, the country went into a downward spiral of chaos. People protested, vigils were had, Facebook groups were created, the President was asked to step down, etc., etc. As all things in Guatemala, things calmed down after a few weeks and not much was heard after. The Guatemala Commission Against Impunity (“CICIG”) was now in charge of the investigation, and was promising to bring justice and transparency. The CICIG was created a couple years ago, and is a joint enterprise between the United Nations and Guatemala to try and combat impunity, largely by having an investigatory body that is not affiliated with the country of Guatemala, and thus less susceptible to corruption. Indeed, the head of the organization, Carlos Castresana, hails from Spain, and many within the organization come from a variety of other countries. Thus far, the CICIG had been steadfast in changing legislation and recommending crucial changes to the judicial system. Although it has tried to implement change, it has constantly had to go on an all-out war to achieve anything, since most people who have to approve anything this commission does are happy with the way things are done in Guatemala. Up until recently, the people of Guatemala were generally optimistic and hopeful about the presence of the CICIG and the work it was doing.
However, the CICIG has recently lost much credibility within the Guatemalan public. This is because they recently reported their findings on the Rosenberg case, in which they stated that Rosenberg set up the assassination himself–orchestrating his own death. This news even made it to the New York Times. I checked out the CICIG’s website (which for my luck was not in existence when I was writing a research paper on the commission!), and found a powerpoint presentation on their findings. Granted, it’s all in Spanish, but they seem to have done quite a bit of homework to come to their conclusion. I honestly don’t know who to believe. The report states that Rosenberg was depressed because of the murder of his girlfriend, and because his wife was threatening to take away visitation of their children. Granted, some people get so depressed they decide to kills themselves, but to go the extra mile and orchestrate your own assassination to involve the President of the country, with a plot that was pretty intricate and involved at least a dozen different people? It’s hard to believe. I think Rosenberg would have had to have some strong feelings against the President in order to give his own life to bring the President down.
I applaud the CICIG for actually doing an investigation, which is a step further than Guatemala would have done without the CICIG, but I still wonder if the investigation has any merit to it.

Office Space Update

18 Monday Jan 2010

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So, it actually happened a lot quicker than I thought it would: I got an office! It did make things around the office a little awkward for the first few days or so. See, initially I thought they were going to make new offices in the big open space they had in the back , rather than move anyone around that was currently in one of the 3 offices they have. But I think converting the open space to office space was a little more costly than they wanted, so they ended up kicking out the 3 guys that had offices, and putting them in cubicles in the back, and giving me an office to share with the paralegal that’s training me.

So here I am, fairly new to the firm, still learning the ropes, and already managing to get three guys kicked out of their offices so I could get one. I’m assuming they all got kicked out so it wouldn’t seem personal if they only picked one of the guys to lose their office. Things seem ok, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be happy if I was one of the people that lost an office to the new girl…attorney or not.
Anyhow, here’s my office! And to make matters even more comical, they decided to put my name on the door to the office. Mind you, I share this office with the head paralegal who is the one training me, who’s been there longer and works his butt off…and his name didn’t get put on the door…that created quite a string of non-stop jokes with everyone.
Kinda cool though! And finally, after almost 5 years, my UCSB diploma finally got an actual frame, and both that one and my Chapman diploma will be going up in my office on Monday!

Where I thought I’d be and Where I am :)

11 Monday Jan 2010

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I remember being about 7 or 8 years old, a couple of the few years I had my very own room (which I rarely used because I would crawl into my mom’s bed at some point during the night), and always thinking about the future. When I was 7, I wanted to be 10; when I was 10, I couldn’t wait to be 15; when I was 15, I couldn’t wait to turn 18, and then 21!


I would fast forward to the future, and I would think: my best years are going to be in my mid-twenties! I mean, I’ll be over 21, so I can go out with my girlfriends, I’ll probably be living somewhere like New York City, working somewhere cool, and I’ll get all dressed up and beautiful (like a dress and heals, not jeans and a cute top), and go out for drinks with my girlfriends for happy hour, and we’ll flirt with boys, and everything is going to be perfect (think maybe Samantha Who meets Sex in the City).

My reality: so much better. For one: I hate getting dressed up, my daily make up is basically mascara. For another, by the time I’m off work I don’t want happy hour: I want to go home to Jeff and figure out dinner. I also found out in college that as much as I liked going out with my girlfriends, I was terrible at flirting! I definitely think these are some of the best years of my life: Jeff and I are figuring everything out, and enjoying every second of discovering our future and its possibilities together. It’s nice to look at where you thought you’d be in life when you were little, and realizing that it’s nothing like what you expected, but still so much better.

Alcohol maturity?

11 Monday Jan 2010

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The priest during the sermon this morning was talking about maturity. Granted he was talking about spiritual maturity, but he used a few hooks before getting there. One of those was related to alcohol, how we start to enjoy the sip of a good beer, or good wine.


I’ve always thought it was funny how I transitioned in my alcoholic preferences. I’ll share with all of you that I was a late-bloomer on the alcohol scene. I actually didn’t drink at all in high school, and didn’t have my first [mis]adventure with alcohol until the Summer before I went to college (I still owe Daniel for taking care of me that night as I spent some quality time with the toilet). I stuck to hard alcohol my first years of college, and despised beer. I mean, every time I even attempted to take a sip from a keg at a party, I think I gaged a little–that could’ve been just because it was PBR…

My last year at UCSB, however, I started to enjoy beer. I’m not sure if it was the Imperial while I was in Costa Rica, but I remember that from that point forward, it wasn’t as repulsing to me as it used to be, and I could actually enjoy my red cup of beer at the NAK parties.

Wine was my next step into alcohol maturity. It wasn’t until law school that I started trying different kinds of wine, and actually finding something I liked and enjoyed.

Nowadays, hard alcohol is out of the question for me (that includes irish car-bombs). I still love beer (especially since Brooke and Jeff have introduced me to the finer flavors), but it’s sooooo filling! So these days, I rather enjoy a good glass of Malbec. It’s been a long-and sometimes tiring and exhausting -road of discovery!

Yeah…we got suckered in…

11 Monday Jan 2010

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“Dear Sears shoppers, for a limited time only, we are offering free samples of upcoming QVC promotional items! Just look for the blue light in the men’s department, near the escalator, we will be starting in 2 minutes!”

2 minutes. That’s how close my mom and I were to getting out of Sears on Saturday night. And then that came on the loudspeaker. Among the racks of coats, jackets, and dress pants, I sneak a look over at my mom to gauge her interest at the announcement.
“Just one more minute and we will be handing out FREE samples of our promotional QVC items, just look for the flashing blue lights!”
Uh oh. Let me explain something: for one, everyone loves free stuff. Everyone. And my mom loves QVC….a lot. Because I love her dearly, and because she’d been running around with me for a good hour dealing with my pickiness in choosing a new suit for work (“too baggy…I don’t want black….I don’t want a skirt, I want a pantsuit…too old-lady like…etc., etc., etc.), I thought I’d give in on this. “You wanna go, don’t you?” I saw the look of curiosity in her eyes. “No, no…it’s ok.” A sigh of relief! We only had a couple more racks to look through before we gave up on Sears and moved on to the next location.
“30 seconds everyone, come start lining up, we only have a limited amount of free samples! Just look for the flashing blue lights!”
I think it was the blue lights that got us. “Let’s just go see if we find the blue lights…”
So we went. And we got played. We got the chef knife, we got the garnishing kit, we got the steak knives, and the other knife…all for the amazing price of $29.99! Expect cool-cut fruit soon…unless they’re not as amazing as they made them look! ;)

When is the future here?

05 Tuesday Jan 2010

Posted by in life

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I feel like I’ve constantly been working towards somethings, towards a future that will mean I’m finally done and I can finally begin life. Crazy, I know. I think I’m a type-A personality in some respects, with my lists, agenda’s, constantly planning, constantly doing. I went to college because it was something I thought I had to be crossed off one of my lists, and I went to law school because I thought my college degree wasn’t enough. I struggled financially through college, and lived vicariously through other people I knew-the clothes they bought, going out and spending money every weekend, not hesitant to go out and eat all the time, etc. (I was fortunate enough to save some money and take a few trips in college with great friends however, and I’m glad I didn’t have to live vicariously through anyone for those!) But at that point in my life, I still felt like I was paying my dues. I didn’t come from a privileged background, and I knew I had to finish school to get somewhere. But I finished school, and I finished law school, and I feel like I’m still living vicariously through other people.

Which brings me to a topic I’ve been wanting to raise for a while: jealously. It first came up when I wrote my blog entry about not finding a job, and I got an email from a reader asking if it was wrong to feel jealous when she heard that a friend or an acquaintance got a job, while she kept searching. My response in summary: no. I had the same feelings myself: Jeff had to tell me that I couldn’t get upset every time someone I knew got a job. But I feel that jealously, to a point, is a part of nature. And I’d like to think that my jealously is harmless. I don’t hate my sister-cousin Vanessa because she got to travel to Guatemala for the holidays and travel to Tikal, Antigua, etc. But I will admit I’m jealous. I think I’ve looked at her pictures about a dozen times already.
I keep waiting to reach a point in my life where I’m not struggling anymore, where the income is coming in, and I’m saving money and able to buy and do the things that everyone else buys and does. I have to remind myself that it’s all part of life, that I am living life right now, that I should embrace it and stop waiting for something else. I’m also not so naive that I don’t realize this might be a feeling that we all have for the rest of our life: we’ll always want more, we’ll always want to be somewhere else, we’ll always want to achieve the next best thing.
It should be known: I’m not unhappy with where I am in my life right now, not in the least. I love coming home to Jeff, I love my family, and the friends I’m blessed to have. I know I have so much to be thankful for, and I am :)
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